The Little Wolf
by ThaliaGrace318
Summary: Set in the Mirror Universe: A young woman abandoned her humanity after her family was killed by fire from Terran ships. Taken in, trained and given a new name by Voq, the Klingon leader of the resistance, she adopts his culture and mission to fight against the Terran Empire. Her journey of self-Discovery spans universes.


**The Little Wolf**

The rebel base had been established on Harlak almost two years ago – nearly the longest they'd ever been able to stay in one place thanks to the active camouflage that shielded them. Atop one of the outer ridges of the camp, still within their camo walls yet far enough to have a moment to herself, T'Shinka directed her body through the movements of the Mok'bara forms she was practicing. The technique was said to center the body and clear the mind, a skill she'd not quite yet mastered.

The Mok'bara forms were said to have been invented by the great warrior Kahless himself and used to defeat Molor for which Kahless's name was forever honoured in Klingon history, though in recent years there were few left to remember it. Every race that made up the Rebellion – Klingon, Andorian, Vulcan, Telorite – was on the verge of losing the very essence of themselves, their cultures nearly extinguished by the cruel and unrelenting grip of the Terran Empire. And what then were a people, without name, without language, without history? If they did not preserve their culture by continue to teach it, even to those that were not of the same blood, it would be lost forever.

T'Shinka herself was not Klingon, though she bore a Klingon name, a name which meant 'Little Wolf'; practiced their martial arts, spoke in their tongue, a language now nearly forgotten. Even her wild main of thick hair was tamed into braids that resembled a Klingon ridge. And all in an effort to forget what she truly was: human.

Terran.

She did not want to preserve the culture she'd been born to, she wanted to burn it and everything it stood for: the oppression and intolerance, the race-hatred, the rampant unreasoning cruelty that the Terran Empire predicated against all other species, and the way it went unquestioned and accepted, just par for the course. Every effort she'd made since she was a small child was to excise the humanity from her. She'd left her human name behind along with the body of the only one who'd ever cared for her among the ruins of a settlement that had been fired on by a Terran ship trying to flush out rebels with no regard to their own civilians being in the line of fire. Her own kind hadn't even taken the time to search for survivors after the fact.

 _A small child huddled cold and scared amidst the wreckage, her throat raw from screaming, dust and fumes choking the air, blood sticky and cloying against her skin, the smell of smoke and burned flesh…_

T'Shinka stopped mid-form and took a breath trying to regain her center as memory better left buried with the dead threatened to pull her under. It did little to calm her. She did not do _calm_ very well.

She pulled out her mek'leths, the wicked two-pronged blades that were a traditional weapon of a Klingon warrior. They'd been gifted to her by the Fire Wolf when she'd earned the respect due to a warrior by the shedding of the enemy's blood and the sacrifice of her own blood in battle – the former she considered a joy, the latter an honour. The blades, her most treasured possession. Her blades had actually been made on Qo'noS, the handles intricately inscribed with Klingon script. Such artifacts were few, remnants of the homeworld destroyed by the Terrans in their brutal and never-ending quest for dominance. T'Shinka began the harsher, more offensive movements to better match her mood, her blades cutting swiftly and with deadly precision against imagined opponents, slashing the throat or disemboweling. The conflict, even the illusion of it, did more to bring her mind into focus than her attempts at tranquility.

She stopped suddenly, her blade held in an outward thrust. She held still as a six-winged insect, reminiscent of a dragonfly on Earth but with a pointed beak and barbed tail, flitted in front of her and alighted on the flat of her blade. Its translucent wings refracted the sunlight making tiny rainbow arcs. The display was meant to attract prey to be brought down by the poison in its barb. Small and delicate, yet deceptive and deadly. T'Shinka could relate.

She flicked her wrist sharply and the insect fell to the ground, its wings severed. T'Shinka sheathed her blades and drew a small vial from her pocket. Without its wings it was ungainly, an ugly squirming little thing, still dangerous as its barb flicked back and forth defensively. With a well-timed moved she grabbed it and pressed the barb into the cork of the vial, collecting the highly potent toxin that the seemingly fragile creature carried. The small amount of the clear liquid she gathered might look insignificant, but administered properly, it was lethal.

There was a beep from her communicator. _"T'Shinka! Proximity alert!"_ She was running along the top of the ridge before the message even ended; she drew her hooded mask into place without breaking her sprint.

The dark suit she wore, made for stealth, covered her completely, a hood covered her hair and the black mask hid her face, making it difficult to determine what species she was. Keeping her identity hidden from possible enemies was always paramount; no one outside of the inner circle of the Rebellion could be allowed to recognize that the Fire Wolf's right hand was human. Her missions depended on being unknown. The active camouflage that shielded their base, a technology that she's helped develop, was also incorporated on a much smaller level into her suit and she activated it now as she past the boundaries of the base. To anyone watching it would've appeared that her form shimmered before disappearing.

Lieutenant Shukar was at the watch post. His antenna twitched in her direction acknowledging her approach, needing no visual clue to register her position. Andorians were proud and willful by nature; that Shukar had alerted her personally and waited before giving further orders showed how far she'd come in her battle to earn the respect of the Fire Wolf's highest Lieutenants. "Two intruders, human," Shukar reported. "No sign of any shuttle craft. They must have beamed down from a ship."

T'Shinka used the viewer built into the lenses of her mask to get a closer look. Sure enough, the intruders were human, two of them armed with phasers, and the uniforms they wore were unmistakable. Imperial Officers, one of them a captain no less – the ostentatious gold the woman wore was a dead giveaway. T'Shinka zoomed her viewer in for a closer look at this captain. _It can't be,_ T'Shinka thought, the fire of rage igniting in her blood as she recognized the woman's face.

"They are within weapons range," Shukar informed her.

Though T'Shinka would like nothing more than to stain the ground with the blood of a Terran captain, particularly if this captain was who she thought it was, reason was called for here. The Fire Wolf had often schooled her about how to be in command she had to think past her impulses, to take measure of a situation. She grounded and centered herself (perhaps those calming techniques had some effect after all) and then gave her order. "Fire in a pattern around them. Let them know we have them pinned."

T'Shinka watched as the Terran intruders were hemmed in by plasma fire raining down around them from the hidden cannons. The barrage of cannon fire echoed in her ears despite the sound filters in her mask.

No…the echo was inside her head. _The echo of ghosts. Deep booms, fire from the sky, buildings crumbling, people running screaming, chaos. Arms grabbing her, holding her small body in a crushing grip. "Take her! Go! Get to cover!" A blast. Pain._

T'Shinka flicked her head sharply, shaking it off. The past was dead and gone.

When the salvo let up, the Terran captain took her guard's weapon and set in on the ground along with her own and both raised their hands in a gesture of surrender. The captain spoke, "I seek an audience with the one you call the Fire Wolf."

 _I'm sure you do_ , T'Shinka thought venomously as still camouflaged she moved into position. The chance to get close enough to kill the Fire Wolf, dealing such a blow to the rebellion, would be worth risking their own lives, although T'Shinka wouldn't have expected a Terran captain to do so herself. Terran leaders threw away lives easily, but self-sacrifice was not a part of their criteria. T'Shinka de-camoed right in front of them, her sidearm pointed at the captain. She could see that the Terran captain was startled by her sudden appearance but hid it well. Up close now, T'Shinka was sure. It was Michael Burnham, the Butcher of the Binary Stars. She spared a glance at the other human. She did not know his face; most likely he was Burnham's personal guard.

"We come in peace," Burnham claimed. "Against the orders of our Emperor, we come to deliver a message. A warning."

T'Shinka ached to pull the trigger on her phaser, to obliterate this Terran bitch into less than dust, but her hand was stayed by the teachings of her mentors: to temper the Klingon aggression she'd adopted with logic, to consider all options besides what was most instantly gratifying, to put the welfare of their people first. These Terrans had willingly disarmed, and if they had information – or if information could be forced from them – then the opportunity could not be wasted. She nodded to Shukar. He and the others confiscated the intruder's weapons, keeping plasma rifles trained on them.

"With me," T'Shinka ordered. Her men surrounded the Terrans and they marched out towards camp.

* * *

 **Author's Challenge:** Thank you for reading. I plan on showing in flashbacks how the Little Wolf, T'Shinka got to be who she is as well as her true origins (which might surprise you), while also telling the story of how she ends up on the Discovery and going back to the Prime Universe with them. A lot of viewers to the show were able to predict the twists and turns that the show took, from Ash Tyler being Voq to Lorca being from the Mirror Universe. The overlying story will follow the show, but with curves thrown in from this new character. I challenge you to predict what turns this story will take ;)

What was her relationship to Voq like?

Who was T'Shinka before Voq took her in?

How will she react to the Prime Discovery crew?

What will be her reaction to Prime Voq, aka Ash Tyler?

Send me your predictions and what you would want to see happen;)


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